Facts About the U.S. Black Population

These fact sheets rely on self-identification of race and ethnicity in the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) to identify the nation’s Black population. However, an individual’s racial and ethnic self-identification may not be fixed and instead can change over time. In addition, the racial and ethnic categories used by the U.S. Census Bureau can change as the way the nation sees itself changes. These changes, in turn, may impact how many people identify as Black (or any other race). See “What Census Calls Us” for more details on how the racial and ethnic categories have changed throughout the years.

Unless otherwise noted, adults are those who are ages 18 and older.

U.S. Black population or total Black population refers to anyone who self-identifies as Black in the United States. This includes those who say their race is only Black; those who say Black is one of two or more races in their background; and those who say they their race is Black, or say that one of their races is Black but also indicate they are of Hispanic or Latino or Black origin. The terms Black population and Black people are used interchangeably in these fact sheets.

The terms single-race Black and Black alone are used interchangeably throughout these fact sheets to refer to the same population. This population is made up of individuals who self-identify only as Black and do not identify as Hispanic or Latino.

The term multiracial Black is used to refer to people who self-identify as two or more races and do not identify as Hispanic or Latino.

The term Black Hispanic is used to refer to those who self-identify as Black and Hispanic or Latino, as well as those who self-identify as multiracial Black and Hispanic or Latino.

Foreign born refers to persons born outside of the United States to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen. The terms foreign born and immigrant are used interchangeably in these fact sheets. In these fact sheets, we refer to several generations. These are defined by their birth years and ages in 2019 as follows:

* No chronological endpoint has been set for this group. For this analysis, Generation Z is defined as those ages 7 to 22 in 2019.

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